Language A: Literature school supported self-taught oral commentary
questions (May and November 2017)
The formal oral commentary is a close literary analysis of the passage or poem. It is expected that, in preparing
for each of the 10 questions for the two works studied, students will pay attention to the way in which literary
features such as language, style, tone and voice create particular effects.
Poetry
1. Discuss the poet’s treatment of time in the selected poem.
2. Explore how and to what effect the poet has used sound and musical elements in the chosen poem.
3. Analyse the techniques used by the poet to present moral values or beliefs in the poem you have selected.
4. Comment on the poet’s choice of formal and/or informal language in the chosen poem.
5. Discuss the way in which voice has been used to create a particular effect in the selected poem.
Drama
1. Comment on the use of symbols and the effects they produce in the chosen passage.
2. Explore the use of dialogue in presenting the main ideas in the selected passage.
3. Choose a passage from the concluding scene to an act or the play itself. Discuss the dramatic importance of this
passage for the play as a whole.
4. Analyse the techniques used by the playwright to surprise the audience in the chosen passage.
5. Explore how and to what effect the playwright has used closed and/or open spaces as the setting of the
selected passage.
Prose fiction
1. Comment on the techniques used in the chosen passage to establish the society presented in the work studied.
2. Analyse how the author has revealed the strengths and/or weaknesses of a character in the selected passage.
3. Choose a passage from the beginning of the work you have studied. Discuss how this passage is crucial to
engage the reader’s interest.
4. Analyse the way description is used in the chosen passage and its effects.
5. Explore how and to what effect understatement and/or exaggeration have been used in the passage you have
selected.
Prose non-fiction
1. Examine the use and effects of fictional and non-fictional elements in the chosen passage.
2. Explore how and to what effect the author has used a concrete event with universal significance in the selected
passage.
3. What techniques has the author used in the chosen passage to express a critical interpretation of reality?
4. Examine the means by which readers are invited to reflect on the ideas of the author which are presented in the
selected passage.
5. Discuss how the selected passage shows that significant care has been taken in the choice of language and
precision of the vocabulary employed by the author.
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